Make: Online's Toolbox section features "tools that fly under the radar of more conventional tool coverage." The latest entry is a round up of "homely tools."
James Vreeland — Before the war, my grandfather was a toolsmith and perpetual tinkerer in Poland. After the fighting started, he and my grandmother were sent to a Siberian work camp. Not content to allow such an inconvenience to keep him from making things, he began to cobble together a humble toolkit. In lieu of a finishing hammer, he was able to scrounge a short segment of brass bar stock, which over time mushroomed at both ends and shortened by almost half.
Apparently he found this solution adequate, as when he and my grandmother moved to the States after the war, he continued the practice in his new life as a lamp maker. As each "hammer" got too short to use further, he'd toss them into a drawer and begin the process anew. When he passed, he had "finished" three and was well along his way to completing a fourth, which I use to this day whenever the need for gentle mechanical persuasion is in order. Thank you Jan Jakiela for teaching me what patience and dedication looks like, in the form of a one pound lump of metal.
James is a very lucky fellow to have his grandfather's hammers. And I applaud the fact that he still uses one to make repairs.
Toolbox: The homeliest tool in the shed
